Frontotemporal lobar degeneration: new understanding brings new approaches.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) describes a group of clinical syndromes united by underlying frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) pathology. The clinical syndromes associated with FTLD are heterogeneous and are based on whether the patients present with behavioral, language, or motor impairments. FTLD is at the center of a paradigm shift in neurodegenerative diseases, with thought being given at diagnosis of underlying disease. There is pathologic heterogeneity of certain clinical syndromes such as behavioral variant FTD. Differentiation between the proteinopathies will become imperative as protein-specific treatments become available. This review provides an overview of FTLD, with an update of recent discoveries. Crown